Pre-formed objects made of gelling agents, which are free of supporting substrates, provide unique benefits to various consumer products due to its formed, yet flexible physical characteristics. Pre-formed patch and mask devices are useful for cosmetic and dermatological treatment products such as for delivering skin care actives, percutaneously deliverable pharmaceuticals, and for promoting healing of burns or wounds. Edible pre-formed sheets and objects provide nutritional products and snacks having distinctive appearance and oral texture, and oral administrative pharmaceuticals.
Co-pending PCT application US/00/09694 relates to a pre-formed cosmetic device for delivering skin benefit agents to the skin, hair or nails, the cosmetic device comprising a solid gel sheet having opposed first and second surfaces, wherein the gel sheet comprises one or more gelling agents and topical acceptable hydrophilic solvent. In PCT application US/00/09694, injection molding is disclosed as a preferred embodiment for producing the gel sheet.
While injection molding is one effective method to provide pre-formed objects, particularly in small scale production, such method is not desirable for producing large quantities of pre-formed objects due to the complexity of instruments required to form the composition at controlled temperatures and speed. Further, in that forming of compositions containing gelling agents by injection molding require flash cooling of the composition, this may result in compositions that do not have a stable rheology. Unstable rheology of a pre-formed object having no supporting substrate may lead to unstableness of the form of the product, leaking of the product from the packaging, or ineffective delivery of actives via the product. All of such may significantly affect product performance and/or aesthetics.
Based on the foregoing, there is a need for a process for producing a stable pre-formed object which is free of a supporting substrate, that can be applied to large scale manufacturing.
None of the existing art provides all of the advantages and benefits of the present invention.